The present invention relates to tongs, and in particular to a leaf spring arrangement for hand held tongs.
Hand held tongs are used extensively to manipulate a great variety of household items, such as ice, firewood, and the like, and are particularly adapted for use in the design of kitchen utensils for the culinary arts. One application for the tong and leaf spring arrangement of the present invention pertains to kitchen utensils, which are particularly designed for making flavored beverages, such as that disclosed in my copending application, Ser. No. 76,487, filed Sept. 17, 1979. Such kitchen utensils typically are used in the preparation of hot drinks, by placing a flavoring agent in a perforated bowl portion of the device, and flowing hot water therethrough, such that the essence of the flavoring agent is imparted to the water. Heretofore, such devices were of a complicated, rather intricate design, such as that disclosed in the Gray U.S. Pat. No. 453,972, with several small interlocking parts to open and close the foraminous bowl members. Such utensils are not only quite costly to manufacture, but are also cumbersome to operate, easily damaged, and deteriorate quickly, particularly when used with highly acidic, hot beverages such as tea. One particularly difficult problem experienced with such utensils relates to the spring mechanism which facilitates the manipulation of the utensil bowl portions. The spring mechanism must be quite durable to avoid fatiguing or losing its resiliency after repeated bending. As a result, many such utensils are fabricated of spring steel or other similarly resilient materials which are quite costly, and difficult to form.